What's new in CityEngine 2017

CityEngine 2017.1 highlights

Visibility Analysis tools for planners

CityEngine 2017.1 introduces a new set of interactive Visibility Analysis tools. You can use these tools, for example, to assess the vista from an apartment in a new building site or determine whether a specific building blocks a protected view. You can perform visibility analysis of static and dynamic models, streets, and terrain.

The View Dome tool allows you to see the visibility from multiple observer points in 360-Degree views.

The View Corridor tool models protected views, such as to and from historic sites in your scene. The buildings in your scenarios that interfere with the view corridor are highlighted automatically. This allows you to design the silhouettes of your proposals to fit optimally into your city model.

All Visibility Analysis tools are scene objects that are saved in your scene. Using either the Inspector or the handles in the 3D viewport, you can adjust your visibility parameters and the visibility analysis recalculates on the fly. Additionally, the Inspector features an observer view that displays exactly what you can see from the observer position of the chosen Visibility Analysis tool.

Collaborative layer editing with the ArcGIS platform

You can now import polygon feature layers hosted on ArcGIS Online into CityEngine and modifications can be synchronized across the ArcGIS platform. The layer synchronization can solve edit conflicts and allows for collaborative editing on the same layer. This means the layer can be simultaneously edited by multiple planners using CityEngine, ArcGIS Pro, a web app based on ArcGIS API for JavaScript, or other ArcGIS apps.

High-end architectural visualization with Unreal Engine

Interactive experiences, whether on the screen or in VR, are the next big step in architectural visualization. The demand for faster turn-around times prompted a shift from expensive ray-tracing to interactive game-engine-based visualizations. Esri worked with the development team of Epic Games industry leading Unreal Engine to streamline the transfer of your CityEngine scenes into the Unreal development environment. This provides the foundation to build 3D experiences that allow you to walk through realistically rendered city models or even create a fully fledged 3D game (see demo video). Learn more about the new CityEngine-to-Unreal workflow at the recent Unreal Engine SIGGRAPH User Group Meeting.

"CityEngine allows us to model HOK’s massive urban planning projects. In the past, creating interactive high-end visualizations of several hundred thousand buildings was a challenge. Now, with the new CityEngine 2017.1, we can export directly to Unreal Engine. This enables us to craft fluid, data rich, real-time rendered experiences for our clients and stakeholders."

… and many more enhancements and fixes

CityEngine 2017.0 highlights

Introducing scenario-based planning and customizable dashboards

CityEngine 2017.0 introduces the concept of scenarios. With scenarios, you can create multiple design alternatives within a scene. Compare and edit scenarios in side-by-side window views. The new customizable dashboards are scenario-aware and can show reports for multiple scenarios simultaneously. This allows you to analyze the performance of designs against each other in real-time while designing. Using these intuitive planning tools will simplify the complex design iteration workflows.

Introducing the Local Edit tool for procedural models

You can now apply local edits to a procedural model, which was one of the remaining big challenges in procedural modeling. The Local Edit tool allows you to make changes to specific structural features in the procedural model, such as resizing windows, adding balconies, or changing usage types per floor, without affecting the entire procedural model.

Introducing measure tools

Measure distances, heights, areas, and paths with a new set of intuitive interactive tools. The measure tools include "laser lines" that, for example, allow you to see the elevation of a building relative to all the other objects in the scene.

Complete revamp of user interface

CityEngine 2017.0 presents a completely revamped graphical UI, resulting in a fresh, modern look and improved ease of use. Also, CityEngine 2017.0 improves support for high-DPI displays allowing for larger UI elements and fonts at high resolutions.

Introducing CGA neighborhood queries

The shape grammar language CGA, now features context operations to query the neighborhood of a shape and make advanced occlusion queries. For example, with the new label operation, you can tag shapes and use a rule to check whether the geometry overlaps with a previously labeled shape or calculate the distance to the nearest label.

Improved import and export functionalities

CityEngine 2017.0 provides enhanced support for several 3D import and export formats. For example, FBX now supports unit information; Collada has better support for multiple UV sets and format dialects; KML can now export multiple models to SketchUp; RenderMan supports environment variables; and several minor SLPKs issues were fixed.

"CityEngine is the perfect tool for creating detailed, large-scale urban environments for visually stunning VR productions. For game engines such as Unity or Unreal, CityEngine features an advanced FBX exporter that makes quick turnaround, fully immersive VR experiences possible."